Jimmy Cameron was born on February 4, 1945 in Hampton Georgia.He dropped out of high school in the 11th grade and joined the US Marine Corps in February of 1963 

He was wounded in Vietnam on July 16, 1966 while taking part in Operation Hastings, at the time the largest such operation in the war in balding about 12,000 troops on our side and a like number on the enemy side.

He spent nearly a year recovering from his injuries in the Philadelphia naval hospital and was medically retired from the Marine Corps in April of 1967.